Remember when we used to congregate together in our synagogues, at the Jewish Community Center, at restaurants, in movie theaters and in other such meeting places? Remember when people wearing masks were usually about to commit a crime rather than protect...

This week’s parshah, Kee Teesa, contains one of the ugliest transgressions in the long history of the Jewish people: Chet HaEgel, the sin of the forging and worshipping the Golden Calf.Quite honestly, if I had my druthers, and the chutzpah to do so,...

There is a psalm for every day of the week, known as Shir Shel Yom.  Wednesday’s is Psalm 94, and it tells us, “For the law shall return to righteousness, and all those of upright heart shall follow it.” Implicit is the reality that the...

In this week’s Torah portion, Yitro, we encounter one of the most epic moments in the Torah.At the foot of Mount Sinai, accompanied by thunder and lightning, the newly freed Israelites enter into a new covenant with their Redeemer. They hear the Ten...

The Torah portion for this week, Bo, is filled with plagues (three, to be exact), darkness, laws of Passover, the commandment to sanctify the new moon, borrowed items and pidyon ha-ben — redemption of the first-born son. This is a story about our liberation...

This week’s Torah reading describes the first seven of the 10 plagues that were intended to demonstrate how the power of the God of Israel surpasses that of Pharaoh and a host of lesser Egyptian gods and goddesses. At first, it appears that these...

After I graduated from college, I spent a year working for Facing History and Ourselves, an international organization whose mission is to use lessons of history to challenge teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hate.One of Facing History’s...

I write this message during a season of endings. The secular year is coming to its close, and this Shabbat we fittingly will read the concluding parashah of B’reyshit, the Book of Genesis. Our Torah Reading is Va-y’chi, Genesis 47:28-50:26, which...

How much attention do you pay to your dreams? Clearly, the Pharaoh of Egypt (and his courtiers, as we heard in last week’s Torah Portion!) took their (and the Pharaoh’s!) dreams very seriously.  And in this week’s Parashah of Miketz, the Torah...

St. Louis-area Jewish clergy are offering a one-hour online learning session each day of Hanukkah this year. The “Eight Days of EnLIGHTenment” education series is sponsored by the St. Louis Rabbinical and Cantorial Association, whose membership includes...

Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Charan. He came upon a certain place and stopped there for the night, for the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of that place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. He had a dream; a stairway was...

Here we are in the Jewish calendar with no holidays. The month of Cheshvan that just ended is at times referred to as Mar Cheshvan, or Bitter Cheshvan, by virtue of the absence of any holidays.  It is precisely during this time period that we have the...